AN: SORRY FOR LATENESS! I took my ACT on Saturday, so I'll be updating regularly, every 1-3 days again ;)

NICO'S POV

"Finally!" Jason yells, running to the water at the beach. Without even flinching at the cold water, he plunges right into the sea and whoops, with Percy close behind him. Of course, Percy wouldn't even feel the water.

Piper and Annabeth slowly pick their way through the hot sand and set up a little shaded tent, complete with towels. They put on sunblock and just watch me as I walk across the sand. Hot, hot, hot! The sand is assaulting my feet with its extremely painful heat. Do none of the other demigods notice this?

When I reach the other demigods spread out around the sand and head to the water, I look around for Will. We weren't in the van together because I shadowtraveled, but I'm pretty sure we arrived at the same time. I spot him lying down with sunglasses over his eyes, suntanning. He must be closing his eyes because he doesn't notice me as I jog over to him.

"Hey, Will!" One of his siblings beat me to him and I stop short.

Startled, Will sits up with his sunglasses still over his eyes. He breaks out into a smile as he sees his half brother over him. "Hey, Austin! What's up?"

"A couple of us are going surfing! Want to join?"

Will laughs. "Are you kidding me? I was born knowing to surf!" He reaches behind him and grabs a surfboard that had been lying in the sand. Austin jogs away and I approach Will.

He looks up from his chair, still smiling. "Hey Nico! Did you put on sunscreen?"

"N-not yet," I stammer. Why is he asking about sunscreen?

"Tsk, tsk, you'll get nasty sunburns if you don't! C'mon, doctor's orders! Put on some sunscreen!"

"I'm beginning to hate the phrase, doctor's orders," I grumble.

Will reaches into his bag and grabs the bottle of sunscreen. "Take off your shirt."

Muttering in annoyance, I take off the black tank top I chose to wear today and let him spread the sunscreen on my back.

He pauses after a few seconds. "Those scars..."

I blush, slightly embarrassed. "You can thank Gaea for that."

"I wouldn't thank her for anything. Except maybe giving me an excuse to talk to you more forcefully than I ever have before." He turns me around and puts sunscreen around my shoulders.

I don't look at his eyes, or I suppose, his sunglasses.

"If you keep blushing like that, someone's really going to think you have a sunburn," Will tells me, his light smile replaced with a mischievous smirk.

"You talked to me before I left for the quest?"

His smirk turns into a neutral expression. It's amazing how fast he can go through emotions. "A lot of people tried getting through to you after the Battle of Manhattan, you know."

"I- I always thought everyone was pushing me away after that," I admit. "I didn't exactly get a cabin to welcome me back as a hero, anyway."

"Well, at least your cabin wasn't falling apart." He moves on to put sunscreen down my chest. I look at the water in the distance to avoid watching him.

I whisper truthfully, "My cabin was falling apart."

In silence, he continues to "help" me put on sunscreen, even though I'm pretty sure my chest has plenty of it on me.

Will sighs and suddenly pulls me into a hug, leaving me surprised.

"I can't fix the past for you, Nico. But at least I can give you a better future. I did try to talk to you sometimes, trying to come up with the courage to talk to you. Finally, when you left, I was so scared, thinking I'd never get to tell you if you died in Greece or wherever." Will pulls away, but continues to hold my shoulders. He gives me a sad smile and pushes his sunglasses up into his hair so he can look me straight in the eyes. "And then you showed up out of nowhere and I could only thank the gods for that. But then I realized, the gods weren't really there for us, they weren't there for you. And only your friends could be, I could be. So I told myself to suck it up and talked to you directly."

I nod into his shoulder as he pulls me back into a hug, feeling the heat from our bare chests pressed against each other.

"Hey! If you guys are done with your PDA, we're going surfing!" Austin yells at us from near the water at us. Around him, a bunch of Apollo and Athena kids are together, giving us large grins. Annabeth, Percy, Piper, and Jason are with them as well.

"Coming!" Will shouts back at them, laughing. Then he looks at me. "Well, almost done."

Smiling, he presses his lips to mine. I feel flustered butterflies through me, but I shove them down. No need to be nervous anymore. Will's your boyfriend now.

Will pulls away and takes my hand. He grabs his surfboard and runs to the other campers, whooping. He doesn't let go until he gets onto the board.

. . .

"Why don't you surf, Percy?" Annabeth teases Percy as we watch most of the other campers surf.

"I told you, Annabeth: I've never tried!"

"You should try!" I tell Percy cheerfully.

"You're just happy because your boyfriend can surf!" He shoots back.

I gloat, "No wonder you're not my type, Jackson. You can't surf like he can! Nor can you look as good as he does surfing!" I beam at Will as I watch him navigate the waves easily.

"I could just ride the water easily," Percy grumbles.

"That's cheating!" Jason pops up next to him. "Everyone would know if you were actually riding the wave."

"Where did he even learn to surf?" Piper appears next to him with shells in her hands.

"I'm not sure. He never told me," I reply.

"Secrets are bad," Annabeth scolds.

"Monsters are bad. Fights are bad. Dying is bad. There are a lot of bad things in life," I respond. "We just learn to deal with them."

She tilts her head as if slightly confused for a few seconds before saying, "When did you get so wise?" She ruffles my hair, making everyone laugh as I complain about it.

"You know, you should try surfing with him," Jason suddenly says after we continue to watch Will for a few seconds. He wiggles his eyebrows for emphasis.

"I bet he'll teach you!" Piper exclaims, starting to grab my arm. Our little group joins in and pushes me toward the water.

"Stop pushing me! Stop!" I whine as they drag me over to the edge of the water. They just keep laughing.

Will starts to swim back to us with a big smile on his face.

AN: Busy week! I'll post a fanfiction one shot on my other fanfiction: Post War with a Halloween theme or something hehe! I'm not sure how much of this fanfic I'll get done in the next few days or so, therefore, keep checking back often! I am literally less than 200 views away from 10K VIEWS! WOW! You readers are AMAZING! Please fav/follow/review for more fanfiction FUN!